SOUTH FLORIDA PLAYFUL PLACE

With a climate suitable for outdoor activity year round, recreational opportunities abound for residents and visitors of Broward and Palm Beach counties.

South Florida's miles of beach along the Atlantic Ocean offers many water sports, including skiing, snorkling, scuba diving, sailboarding and boating.

But recreational activities in the two counties don't end where the sand does. Both counties and the cities within them have ensured there are plenty of things to do and places to go beyond the beach.

Residents of Broward County showed just how important their recreational time is to them when in 1978 they passed a bond issue that allotted $50 million to buy land to be developed into parks and other recreational facilities.

Since that time, seven parks and recreation areas have been purchased and built with that money: Quiet Waters Park, Lions Tradewinds South, Fern Forest, Tree Tops, West Lake, the West Lake tract and C.B. Smith Park.

Also, improvements are being made in Markham Park, Brian Piccolo Park is under construction and the Bradley Airport tract was purchased and is under design as a joint effort with the City of Fort Lauderdale.

The Broward County Parks and Recreation Department also maintains 10 regional and 26 neighborhood parks, all of which are undergoing improvements. And at Markham Park, the county is carving three islands into the landscape.

The various cities in Broward County offer a number of golf courses and public parks which include baseball and softball diamonds; tennis, basketball and shuffleboard courts; swimming pools; jogging and bike trails; and football and soccer fields.

At many of these parks are recreation centers which offer not only sports such as volleyball and basketball, but also classes in aerobics and other activities.

The parks range in size from tot parks, which have playground equipment for neighborhood children, to places like Holiday Park, which has fields, tennis and racquetball courts, a rec center and was the site of this year's Promenade in the Park.

Broward County has 55 public, private and semi-private golf courses. They include everything from par-3 executive courses to the demanding Eagle Trace course in Coral Springs, site of the Professional Golfers' Association Honda Classic tournament.

In Palm Beach, the county maintains 48 parks and is planning expansion on several of them, which includes turning the Howard Tract on Singer Island into the Ocean Reef Park.

The cities within Palm Beach County also maintain several parks each, up to the 20 cared for by Boca Raton.

If golf is your thing, there is plenty to keep you busy in Palm Beach County. There are more than 80 courses, including the recently built Stone Bridge Country Club, new home of a Ladies Professional Golf Assocaition event.

The parks in both counties are also the sites for the many leagues -- softball, tennis, baseball, shuffleboard, soccer, etc. -- that attract thousands of participants.